


And Then There Were Two

by unbreakable_groundriot



Category: Good Omens (TV), Good Omens - Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett
Genre: Angst, M/M, Various Non-Graphic Character Deaths
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-28 11:04:02
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 875
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19810969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unbreakable_groundriot/pseuds/unbreakable_groundriot
Summary: They stayed in touch with Adam and The Them. Anathema and Newt visited often for tea. It had started because, well, it wouldn't do any good to leave the Antichrist unattended. After a while, it became another part of their life together as an angel and a demon. They bought a little cottage at the edge of town and spent a few weeks a year there on holiday. They visited on birthdays and became the weird uncles who always brought the best gifts.It would not last forever, they knew, but for a while, it was fun to pretend.





	And Then There Were Two

It is a punishment to be Eternal. Few things last forever and it is dangerous to grow attached to anything. Rivers change their course, mountains erode, species go extinct, and friends die.

Aziraphale loved children as he did all things, of course, but he wasn't all that keen to have them around. He hated it when they cried over the little things and the way they stared. They were loud and sticky and their stories were rarely very interesting. He blessed them when he could and kept them safe when they did that horrid "I'm going to run into the road without looking" thing. In general he just tried not to be around them. 

It would take a good spritz of holy water to the ass to get Crowley to admit that he adored children. He refused to admit to subtly miracling ice cream cones back to their full glory. He would never acknowledge that he loved to wave back at toddlers. His knees did NOT go weak when Anathema and Newt's little girl called him Uncle Cwowwy and clung to his arm like a monkey. As far as Crowley was willing to admit he hated children. He hated their sticky hands and their loud voices. He hated hearing them excitedly stumble through a story about a pretty tree they saw.

Crowley had never, oh no, he had never drunkenly lamented the fact that he and his beloved angel could never have a family. Adoption and fostering were out of the question. Their children, as all humans do, would one day die. There was no amount of pleading and begging with Someone would change that fact. They could not procreate with each other, not that that stopped them from trying. They could procreate with a human female, but the Nephilim had not worked out very well.

They stayed in touch with Adam and The Them as a sort of middle ground. Anathema and Newt visited often for tea. It had started because, well, it wouldn't do any good to leave the Antichrist unattended. After a while, it became another part of their life together as an angel and a demon. They bought a little cottage at the edge of town and spent a few weeks a year there on holiday. They visited on birthdays and became the weird uncles who always brought the best gifts.

It would not last forever, they knew, but for a while, it was fun to pretend.

* * *

  
The first sign had come within months of the Foiling of the Apocalypse. Pepper suddenly shot up three inches and started to lose the roundness of her cheeks. Weeks after Brian's voice cracked for the first time. Soon after Wensleydale very much did not want to get up and solve that math problem on the board, thank you very much.

Adam stayed the same. He did not grow an inch taller. He did not grow hair in awkward places. He did not grow in maturity.

He had not known.  
He had not known that he would be forever a child. No one had. His life was meant to end during The War that had not been.

No one in Tadfield seemed to notice, but things did not stay the same. Adam's parents never questioned why their boy never grew. His friends slowly started to forget about him and the people of the town occasionally grew confused at the sight of him.

The first to go was Dog. Who knew hellhounds had a life expectancy of fifteen years?

Then came Wensleydale. Aged twenty-three he had choked to death on a healthy salad.

Shadwell met his end due to age and Madam Tracy soon followed of a broken heart.

Pepper was elected prime minister. She was killed during peace talks. It had been a quick death.

Arthur Young died in his sleep of natural causes, whatever that meant.

Brian suffered a slow death by lung cancer brought on, no doubt, by the horrible air quality he was subject to in his profession.

Anathema, Newton, and little Agnes Pulsifer burned in a fire that destroyed their cottage completely.

Dierdre went last. She was old and wrinkled and still believed she was a young woman caring for her eleven-year-old son. She passed in the arms of her child. They say it rained for a month straight after that day.

If Adam Young realized that everyone who had been involved in the Apoca-Not-Today had died then he did not show it. Every day he woke and somehow breakfast was ready for him. He went to school on the appropriate day and slept in on weekends. He was forever in Year 6. He was visited on occasion by the angel and demon who had long since stopped trying to make him understand. He was happy and it seemed like it would last forever.

* * *

They lay together in the bed they had shared for decades now. They both felt a sudden loss in their chests. Just as suddenly the demon felt a wave of hatred wash over him while the angel felt something bright and loving bloom.

When one light went out two more were flipped on. One meant to save and one meant to destroy.

"At least he's found peace."


End file.
